The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

MinnieM123

MinnieM123

Premium Member
StarWarsGirl said:
Ellicott City, yeah. They've been hit hard twice now. There are businesses there that will likely never reopen unfortunately. Some of the photos were just unbelieveable with cars floating away.

They did confirm today that one person died in the flooding. Tragic.
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I saw film footage again of this on the national news this morning. What a shame for that historic district down there. Feel awful for the people affected.
 
MinnieM123

MinnieM123

Premium Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
My son had an issue with the FOP seat not releasing either. He was in number 14. Dh remembered. He is weird that way.
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With the amount of usage of those (back of seat) locks, it's amazing that more don't break down. Mine worked o.k. I thought it was kinda cool that it locked my lower back in snugly, and then somewhat self-adjusted to a more comfortable level (not as tight).

MySmallWorldof4 said:
I was constantly modifying. It was also great to get the extra fp’s when the first 3 were used. That was how we got fp’s for TSMM.
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I imagine for a group of people, fastpass is the way to go--as long as you don't mind constantly checking, as you mentioned. (As a single rider, I do have more options with single rider lines on many larger attractions, so the fastpass thing isn't something that I pay much attention to.) Plus, that all aside, I just like to freely roam around and just "catch" some rides that have shorter lines (no rhyme or reason why sometimes even the larger rides have only 15 minutes or less to wait). :) It's all very random.
 
MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
SteveBrickNJ said:
Today is my colleague's turn to conduct some school concerts. He does the chorus.
So, I'm free right now because my band students will be in the audience rather then at their band lesson.
Later I'll let them come for lunch with me....we'll eat fast fast fast and then they can still play their clarinets.
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Anyway.....I just when on my Disney app and saw the Park opening times for today;
MK is 8AM
Epcot is 9AM
Hollyw. St. is 9AM
Anim. K. is 8AM
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In Nov.(when we go) it will probably vary like that as well? Never do they ALL open at 8AM???....and all of them open by 9AM, never later than that, correct?
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Don't know if anyone answered this, but AK was open at 8am for EMH every weekday of our trip last week. It may be a temporary thing for the summer crowds? All parks open at 9 every day. HS was definitely the quietest crowdwise when we went, and Epcot was second. MK early was quiet as well. I even commented that it was quiet like it was in the early 2 thousands after 9/11. We actually had elbow room. MK always seems to get crowded by 11-12. Early on it is not too bad.
 
MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
StarWarsGirl said:
I lucked out on Frozen last trip. My brother and I were over in MK (prepare yourself, this is a very long story). We had gotten a fourth FP for Winnie the Pooh. We had plans to go over to Epcot, so I was checking out what FPs were available. Two Frozen FPs popped up out of the blue. I grabbed them.

Then Pooh broke down. We were escorted off.

Then we somehow ended up on BTM three times in a row. I don't remember how that happened.

I'm either very lucky or very unlucky, and I'm not sure which it is.
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We've done BTMR 3 times in a row at rope drop. I think it was when 7DMT was still pulling everyone in the morning. We went to BTMR for rope drop on this trip, and did not have the ability to do it twice. We did Space Mountain twice on this trip at rope drop. Not too bad of a wait the second time. Only 15 minutes.
 
MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
Songbird76 said:
You reminded me that I forgot to tell you all....so, my husband joined the school....board isn't quite the right word. They don't really have any power and it's only for DD's school, not all the schools. But they basically tackle all the concerns and try to come up with solutions to problems. Obviously, he had already been working on the bullying problem since he joined the board like....2 years ago? And one of his main points is that this system they use, called "Kanjer training" (kanjer is kind of like...champion, or star), didn't work in our experience because while it was a great guideline for teaching kids to communicate, in reality it wasn't helping because there were never any consequences for bad behavior. The kids were supposed to talk it out when they had a disagreement, but when a kid intentionally does something, talking it out won't really help, and they also need an adult to facilitate it, which the school didn't do....they made the kids do it completely on their own and only stepped in enough to say "Don't do that anymore" when the kids couldn't work it out themselves. But the school was insistent that they use this method and it's great and bla bla bla. DH was driving to work Friday when the news came on the radio and said that studies have proven that the Kanjer Training method doesn't work....it's ineffective. So he has now added that to the agenda for the next board meeting....what to do about it since it obviously doesn't work, which is now proven, not only by our own experience, but by scientific study. DH will be leaving the board at the end of this school year, since DD goes to high school next year and DS is no longer at that school...I hope the other members keep it on the agenda so no one else has to go through what DS did. I know he wasn't the only one...there are others, and hopefully the board will keep working on it and not lose momentum now that DH will be gone. But I had to say a "hallelujah!" when I heard that was on the radio. We TOLD them it didn't work. They didn't want to believe it was anything they were (or weren't) doing. Now they can't deny it....they have to admit it and either choose to ignore it, or do something about it. But they can't pretend they are handling it well now.
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I was never sure the "no bullying" rules worked here. I think and I may be wrong, but it seems that a lot of youngsters are not taught how to deal with life that does get tougher as you get older. Not everyone is going to be nice to you. It does require getting a little bit of a tough skin to deal with those. There seemed to have also come a time where teachers really couldn't break up fights anymore because of litigation issues. I was told this my teacher friends of mine in NY. Kids need to learn better how to deal with their emotions and adults need to recognize when a kid is in emotional trouble. Of course those with autism are a different case.
 
MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
SteveBrickNJ said:
We are purposely staying in one park each day. I have an app on my phone. Blue background....white circle....inside the circle is a white Mickey image....no eyes or mouth.....just blank. This app is only identified as "Disney World". When opening it, the current wait times are provided. Is THAT app useful for making Fast Pass reservations while in the park...after the original 3 are used? Is there a DIFFERENT app I should download?
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Checked it out further...Coming back with added comments: Seems like that app WILL allow me to make reservations once I'm eligible.
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That's the My Disney Experience App. Super helpful. You have to log in to use it. It is great for wait times, making restaurant reservations, looking at menus, and most importantly making and modifying your fast passes. It will even show the pictures that get taken of you on rides and from photographers.
 
MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
21stamps said:
I was so caught up in the drama and meetings that I missed most of your photos!!! I have no idea how far back they are now. Have you started a trip report? How was the camping?
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No trip report. I posted events from the trip while we were there though on this thread. I will post some more. Trying to catch up a bit here and also catch up with stuff that needs to be done here, like finish a couple of chemistry experiments and getting the kids' portfolios done for their yearly evaluation.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
We've done BTMR 3 times in a row at rope drop. I think it was when 7DMT was still pulling everyone in the morning. We went to BTMR for rope drop on this trip, and did not have the ability to do it twice. We did Space Mountain twice on this trip at rope drop. Not too bad of a wait the second time. Only 15 minutes.
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I remember back in the 80's and early 90's, at rope drop there was what resembled the start of a marathon race. Almost the entire crowd were set like the beginning of a race and when the rope dropped, hundreds went on a dead run toward the biggest attraction at the time... Space Mountain. So when the mobs turned right just before the hub, I would go left and work my way around clockwise. We would meet that big crowd usually around the bottleneck where Small World is located. That would be where the longest lines would be. Once past that it was clear sailing all around to Main Street again. Always made me happy to not be a coaster fan. I rode it twice and found that to be enough for my lifetime.
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
I was never sure the "no bullying" rules worked here. I think and I may be wrong, but it seems that a lot of youngsters are not taught how to deal with life that does get tougher as you get older. Not everyone is going to be nice to you. It does require getting a little bit of a tough skin to deal with those. There seemed to have also come a time where teachers really couldn't break up fights anymore because of litigation issues. I was told this my teacher friends of mine in NY. Kids need to learn better how to deal with their emotions and adults need to recognize when a kid is in emotional trouble. Of course those with autism are a different case.
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Oh I'm all for teaching kids how to deal with emotions....that's been hard with DS and his autism. But we have done everything we can....we talked to him about his reactions and how that's what the bullies are going for....if you don't react, they will stop because it's not fun anymore. We had him do a 10 week program where kids were supposed to learn to be more confident, etc. We tried talking with the bullies and their parents. We tried telling him to go play somewhere else when kids started getting mean....they follow him.

And I think teaching the kids to communicate and negotiate amongst themselves is a great idea....but we have to remember they are kids and they CAN'T do it themselves yet...they need adults to facilitate it and teach them. When something happens, the teacher needs to step in and have them each tell their side, and teach them how to talk it out. And they also need to look for patterns...who is having a LOT of disagreements? Who is being singled out? This method put everything solely on the kids so the teachers didn't have to deal with it.
The kids were supposed to work it out themselves and they weren't allowed to ask an adult for help until they had told the person to stop the behavior at least 3 times, and tried walking away and tried getting some friends to stand with them. And then if all of that failed and they went to the teacher, the teacher reprimanded the perpetrator verbally, and that was it.

And also when teachers SEE something, or it's reported, it needs to be recorded in some way so they can FIND those patterns, and they need to hand out consequences where appropriate. I came upon two boys slamming my son against a brick wall and I literally had to rip one off of him. I reported it to the school, it was not recorded, so when the same boy did something else, they treated it as a first offense EVERY time he did something. And the only thing he had to do was say he was sorry. There was no consequence for it, even though I had seen it happen and had physically pulled him off of DS. And they were 3 years older than my son. Another girl was having problems with the same boy and the school did nothing. She had enough and punched him, and they called HER mother and SHE got in trouble for physical violence. He tortured her for weeks and when she finally stood up to him, SHE was the one who got in trouble, though she had reported his bullying multiple times.

The teacher walked in on a boy snapping my son with a towel, repeatedly, taunting him and telling him to cry because he's a cry baby. I came to report the same boy having spit on my son, tripping him in the hallway, pushing him into a wall, etc and when I said I wanted to talk about this boy, she said "Oh, is this about the incident of him snapping your son with a towel today?" which I hadn't even heard yet. The teacher walked in on it!!! Saw it happening. And told him to stop, and that was it. No consequences for it...in fact, again, my son was told it was his fault because of how he reacted.

You can not get skin thick enough to handle daily torture. And while I'm all for teaching kids to stand up for themselves, how do deal with their emotions, if you only tackle it from that side and don't teach the bullies not to bully, the only thing you are doing is teaching the bullies that their behavior is ok, and teach the victim that it's their own fault for not being stronger. It's not about learning that not everyone is going to be nice to you. But if you teach those kids they can be CRUEL to others without consequences, then of course you're going to continue to have a problem. The reason the kanjer training didn't work is that there was never a consequence for intentional bad behavior. Everything was treated as though it was an accident, so they had to say sorry and the incident was considered over.
 

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